


Day 3: Hypothermia

by Copiel



Series: VLD Whumpmas 2017 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Avalanche, Gen, Hypothermia, Platonic shklance, Whump, but read into it however you want, whumpmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-14 20:57:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13015977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copiel/pseuds/Copiel
Summary: I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. Enjoy!





	Day 3: Hypothermia

Lance gave another involuntary shiver. “Why can’t we ever go to a beach planet? We always get stuck on ice planets!”  
“Lance,” Shiro chided. “We can’t control where distress signals come from. The sooner we finish scouting the region, the sooner we can leave.”  
“Yeah, and the sooner I can get a nice warm hug from Hunk.” Lance sighed wistfully, thinking about warm things. Blankets, hot chocolate, heating pads-  
“Whining’s not going to make anything go faster.” Lance glared at Keith. “What? It’s not.”  
“I didn’t ask for you opinion, Mullet.”  
“That’s enough! Lance, you head closer to the bottom of that cliff. Keith, you go by the lake. I don’t want to hear any arguing over the comms.”  
Lance sulked, but changed his course so he was closer to the snow-capped mountains. With the three of them spread out, Lance couldn’t help but feel a little colder. At least the mountains were pretty. He looked up to the top, noting the way the snow glittered in the moonlight.  
He sighed. To his left, he saw Shiro walking silently. Keith was a few yards beyond him. He was also silent, but the bayard in his hand indicated that he was still on edge.  
A small _whoomp_ sound came from the mountain, drawing Lance’s attention away from his teammates. He scanned the mountaintop, but didn’t see anything moving.  
Less than a minute passed, and he heard another louder _whoomp_.  
“Did you guys hear that?”  
“Hear what?” Lance heard Keith’s bayard activate.  
“Listen.” Lance stopped walking and took a defensive stance towards the cliff.  
_Whoomp_.  
“Doesn’t sound like anything big to me.” Keith started walking again. “It’s probably just the snow shifting.”  
“But why would the-“  
Lance didn’t get to finish his sentence before he saw a large mass of white coming down the hill.  
“Avalanche?” Lance whispered.  
“Lance, get out of there!” Shiro had taken a step forward.  
Lance felt frozen with fear. When he felt some snow hit his armor, he finally snapped out of it, turned around, and ran.  
Shiro was running towards him, probably to pull him out of harm’s way, but he never got the chance to. The avalanche was coming on too quickly, and Shiro was forced to rocket into the air to avoid the snow and ice himself.  
Keith was in the air next to Shiro, but Lance was missing.  
“Keith, scan for a heat signature.”  
Less than a tick later, Keith shook his head. “It’s still coming and shifting everything around. I can’t get a good reading.”  
Shiro exhaled. “Okay. We’ll wait a few minutes, until it’s calmed down. Lance’s helmet was on, so that’ll keep him from suffocating.” He muttered the last part under his breath, but Keith still winced.  
Three minutes passed, and they decided that the avalanche had slowed down enough to begin to search for Lance.  
Keith started another heat scan, and felt sick to his stomach from what he saw. “Lance is down there,” he said, pointing away from the mountain, “but the scanner’s only showing the top half of...of his body.”  
“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m sure his legs are just buried deeper than the rest of him.” Keith didn’t miss the worried tone in Shiro’s voice.  
They flew down the the spot where Lance should have been buried, and started digging with their hands. What surprised Keith the most was the sheer amount of snow they were digging through.  
It wasn’t until three feet down before Shiro found a black gloved hand. “Lance!”he shouted, grabbing the exposed hand. Lance didn’t squeeze back.  
Keith redoubled his efforts while Shiro kept a hold on Lance. Before long, they found his head, confirming their suspicions that he was unconscious, but not convincing Keith that he wasn’t dead.  
After digging a while longer, Keith gasped when he began to dig Lance out below the waist.  
“What’s wrong? Is he hurt?”  
“No, it’s just so cold down there. I think it’s wet, too.” Further digging revealed that they’d found the shoreline of the lake. The lower half of Lance’s body was submerged in the shallow water.  
Shiro cursed under his breath. “That explains the scan you got.”  
“How? I thought snow was colder than water.” Keith was relieved that Lance hadn’t been severed in two, but he was still worried. Hypothermia, frostbite, and amputated limbs raced through his mind as worst-case scenarios.  
“Actually, snow can keep you warm since it packs you in and shelters you from the wind.” Shiro sounded unnaturally calm. “Icy water is deadly, of course. But it shouldn’t have affected Lance since he has the heat regulator on his space suit.”  
“Not to mention the air-tight space suit,” Keith muttered. Shiro chuckled at that. “You should be good to pull him out.”  
Shiro nodded, then grabbed Lance under the armpits and dragged him out of the icy water. He then hoisted Lance over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Keith would have to remember to tease Lance about that later.  
It wasn’t until halfway back to the Blue Lion that Keith noticed something was off with Lance’s suit. The back panel was either torn away or bashed in during the avalanche, and he could see wires and glowing vials of liquid exposed.  
“Shiro, Lance’s suit is broken.”  
“Where?”  
“Back panel.”  
“Oh no. We gotta get him back to Blue, fast!” Shiro broke into a sprint through the snow, Keith behind him. Even with the accelerated pace, it took ten more minutes to get to the lion. Inside Blue wasn’t much better, since she seemed to prefer a colder cockpit.  
Shiro laid Lance on the floor, and started stripping Lance’s armor off. “Keith, can you take over?”  
Keith nodded, and knelt by Lance. Shiro focused his efforts on Blue, taking a seat in the chair.  
“Blue, I know I’m not your Paladin, but Lance is in no condition to fly. We need to get him back to the castle fast, otherwise he may not be able to pilot you again. Let me pilot you, please. For Lance.”  
Nothing happened for a few moments, then the controls lit up. Shiro felt Blue’s presence in his head, then felt the temperature rise.  
He let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”  
“Shiro, what do I do now?”  
Shiro didn’t take his eyes off of his takeoff maneuvers. “Get your armor off and start warming him up with your body heat. Focus on his legs, they were the worst off.”  
Keith raised an eyebrow, but stripped down to the black jumpsuit nonetheless. He grabbed Lance’s left leg, grimacing at the coldness, and started rubbing it, trying to get warmth into it.  
Lance seemed to be warming up his top half, at least. He’d started shivering so hard Keith had to pin his legs down to keep him in one spot. A low groan caught his attention.  
“Lance?”  
Blue eyes blinked open, revealing uneven pupils. “Keith? Wha’ happened?” he slurred. Lance looked down at his legs, where Keith was still rubbing. “Can’t feel m’ legs.”  
“Yeah, you got caught in the avalanche, and your legs got frozen, but it’s going to be okay. I’m going to warm you up and we’re going to get you back to the castle and into a healing pod. I think you have a concussion.”  
Lance nodded as best he could with shivers wracking his torso. “Thanks.”  
Keith smiled. “Anytime, Lance.”


End file.
